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Kosovo: New anti-armour weapon should debut over Serbia
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New
anti-armour weapon should debut over Serbia
BRYAN BENDER
Washington DC
Officials
expected the US Department of Defense's latest air-dropped anti-armour munition,
the Textron-built CBU-97 Sensor-Fuzed Weapon (SFW), to debut during NATO's
'Allied Force' air campaign in Yugoslavia, targeting Serb main battle tanks
and other military vehicles.
With a significant quantity in the US Air Force's inventory more than 1,200, according to one Textron official the SFW was likely to be called on in the "tank-busting phase" of the operation to thwart the Serb offensive against ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. An estimated 40,000 Yugoslav troops and police, backed by hundreds of T-72 and M-84 tanks, and other vehicles are said to be active in Kosovo.
Each SFW, carrying 10 3.86kg BLU-108 submunitions, each with four independent, smaller SKEET warheads that use passive infrared (IR) sensors to home in on armoured vehicles, can be carried on various aircraft, including the B-1, B-2 and B-52 long-range bombers; A-10 ground-attack aircraft; and F-15 and F-16 fighters. "We have [SFW] capabilities from all those," Len Iannuzzo, SFW programme manager at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, told Jane's Defence Weekly.
Officials said the B-1B Lancer, five of which were deployed to RAF Fairford, England, on 1 April, to participate in Operation 'Allied Force', was a prime candidate to use the SFW munition given that each can carry up to 30 SFWs, for a total of 1,200 individual cluster bombs, and because it is the only platform that has been formally certified with the weapon. Other low-flying aircraft, such as the A-10 and F-16, each capable of carrying four SFWs, could just as easily be outfitted with SFW, Iannuzzo said.
The SFW, fitted into a 1,000lb (454kg) class delivery system, can be dropped from altitudes ranging from 200ft to 20,000ft; can operate in all weather conditions; and can cover a 6 ha.
The SFW is designed so that each of the 10 submunitions can dispense their SKEETs to penetrate enemy armour using a copper-plated, 1kg Explosively-Formed Projectile that spins at 1,600rpm.
This year, the air force and Textron plan to start a SFW pre-planned product improvement (P3I) programme. The project will "incorporate an Active Laser Profilometer into the BLU-108 submunition", according to the company. "Working in conjunction with the passive IR sensor, the profilometer will improve the SKEET's aimpoint, providing greater lethality. And with an improved radar altimeter, a skeet will cover twice as much territory, enabling a single SFW to cover up to a 12ha site."
The air force plans to buy 5,000 or more SFWs until FY04.
Photo: Five USAF B-1B Lancer bombers from the 77th Bomber Squadron deployed on 1 April to RAF Fairford, England, from Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota (EPA/PA News)
Jane's Defence Weekly